Kukla's Korner Hockey

Lou Fontinato makes no bones about it. He wanted to fight Gordie Howe that night.
"If he's going to start anything, I'm going after him," Fontinato said he told teammate Eddie Shack prior to the fateful Feb. 1, 1959 encounter between Fontinato's New York Rangers and Howe's Detroit Red Wings, a New York home game.
What Fontinato didn't know is the fight he went looking for would follow him for the rest of his playing days and beyond. It was a fight that some feel destroyed Fontinato's reputation as the league's toughest player and helped cement Howe's reputation as a player as tough as he was skilled.